Chess Hierarchy

Gel Printmaking and photography on paper

Unit 4 Art Making and Exhibiting

Tommy has used gel printing as a technique and collage. Chess Hierarchy emphasises themes of royalty, power and significance, set as chess pieces. The intention of the artwork was to have direct reference to chess. Through utilizing a clever mix of green and white squares to reference the popular Chess.com Website. Inspiration was drawn on a personal connections to the game, as he valued and developed a major interest in the architecture of the chess pieces, viewing them as actual entities which inspired his subject matter of a hierarchy consisting of pawns at the bottom working all the way up to the powerful king and queen. The print’s illustrations resemble that while pieces in chess are more powerful/important than others, they are all essential to the game, as if there were no pawns every piece would fall apart and be nothing. Without a king the game is impossible, and without a queen the game is much harder. The board acts asa connection to all the pieces, as while they are in the wrong order they are all connected and lifting the king and queen reinforcing each piece’s importance. The king has been intentionally painted in silver while the queen in gold. This is to imply that while the king is the most important the queen is the most powerful and dominant, standing out on top of the artwork next to her husband.